The Banana Splits Movie: Tra La La La La La *Splat*

I used to watch The Banana Splits Show as a kid. But to be honest, I didn’t really have any interest in the Banana Splits themselves (although Snorky was cool). I tuned in to watch the shows they introduced. They were primarily cartoons but there was a live action serialized adventure called Danger Island which featured Jan Michael Vincent as an assistant to an archaeologist who, along with the professor’s daughter, get ship wrecked on an island and have to fight off pirates.

There were cartoon adventures of The Three Musketeers, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and my favorite The Arabian Knights. Now fast forward to 2019. Undeterred by the box office flop The Happy Time Murders from last year, some body had the bright idea to take an actual, real life children’s show and make a horror movie out of it.

Before getting to the film, lets talk about the demographics. First, The Banana Splits Show ran for 2 seasons from 1968-1970 for a total of 31 episodes. It hung around in syndication from 1971 to 1982 and has been mostly absent ever since popping up occasionally as collectibles. So it’s been about 25 years since anyone has really seen the show. The people who are going to watch this movie are mostly oblivious to the fact it’s based on a real show. Some may even think it’s appropriate to take their kids to which it most definitely isn’t.

The Banana Splits Show Movie played at Comic-Con to mixed reactions and will debut on the SyFy Channel. My feelings ranged from “meh” to “this is just gross” with a chuckle or 2 thrown in. The plot revolves around a young boy named Harley who really loves the show, especially his favorite Split, Snorky. So the family — his mom, dad, big brother and a play mate of Harley’s go to see a taping of the show. After the show, a small group who had a star on their ticket get to stay for a back stage tour. Harley didn’t get a star so his brother manages to get them back stage through a page named Paige. By now you know this is where the horror gets turned up.

There are the Children in Danger, Children Being Terrorized and Children Witnessing Horrific Acts of Violence tropes. But worse, the movie leaves so much unanswered especially about the Banana Splits themselves. The movies just doesn’t have–excuse the pun–much meat in it. Whether you’ve seen the original show or never heard of the Banana Splits there isn’t much of a movie here to even bother with.